@ cromercrox – Regarding the *cough*, there was a recent Comment by Joseph Romm in our favorite journal beginning with “N”, about dustbowlification. We can has it.

@ rpg – Thanks! It’s from two years ago – I would be thrilled to get another published some day. Or maybe something in Mallorn. But up until this week I haven’t even had time to write blog posts, or to read those of others.

@ ricardipus – A friend from my postdoc days guessed that I was KV; she sent me a very funny e-mail about her suspicions.

@ Cath – Unfortunately, all of us coastal Texans can see Galveston Island disappear, when we visit from time to time. I had no idea that it was happening so rapidly, though. Life follows art follows life. Or something.

I’ve just been having a typically unproductive argument with a US climate-denier type (they seem to overlap with creationists) and my response is now ‘if you think I am making this up go look at Galveston’. They. seem to have no answer.

Such arguments are indeed unproductive, but I always seem to forget that when I’m teetering on the brink of embroilment. Even non-creationist, otherwise rational scientists can be doggedly stubborn AGW deniers. My (internal) question is always “Why? Why do you cling to this denial?” They’ll cling to it in the face of stunning factual statements such as the one from Romm’s article “… in 2011, drought-stricken Texas saw the hottest summer ever recorded for a US state.” I suspect that many otherwise rational individuals don’t want to have to change their behavior, and don’t want to be inconvenienced or made uncomfortable. It may not be a choice very soon.

With the ultra-conservative religious types, such as our own Governor Goodhair, it’s almost always a simple matter of “God gave us dominion over this planet to do as we see fit, which includes trashing it for our go-forth-and-multiplies.” But when even those who accept AGW refuse to modify their behavior in significant ways, it’s difficult to see how the deniers can be convinced to change.